As it is with most Saturday afternoons, a busy crowd moves circuitously around Manhattan’s Union Square. It is usually the busiest day of the week for the Square’s open air farmers’ market.
Sprinkled among the produce vendors there is a handful of stalls selling election memorabilia. One has stock of various printed t-shirts. There are shirts splashed with portrait images of Barack Obama — with accompanying text of "Hope", "Change We Need", and "Obama Mama". Thrown in the mix are shirts with images of Sarah Palin with devil horns and tail, underlined with "Hell No!".
At the stall opposite, a middle-aged African-American man minds a table covered with Obama election pins — that staple of American campaign paraphernalia. Judging from his items on sale, you could be forgiven for thinking the approaching election was a one-man race.
"People ask me all the time about whether I have McCain-Palin pins," he says. "But McCain money ain’t good at this table."
In liberal New York City, it is no surprise to find strong support for Obama. But while there is no doubt about whom New Yorkers are backing, many have the election jitters. Whether it is cynicism or the product of past experience, Democrat voters are refusing to believe that an Obama victory is assured — even if polls are showing him holding clear leads in crucial battleground states.
"The Republicans have stolen it before. It happened in 2000, and it can happen again," our pin-seller says.
To be sure, there is no room for complacency in an election where the stakes are so high: this contest represents a battle for America’s soul. At its heart is the question of which candidate stands as a truer representation of American values.
Is it Obama, an icon of American optimism and redemption? Or is it McCain, a battle-scarred totem of militaristic patriotism? Americans seem to have a clear choice between making a decisive rupture from the Bush years, or vindicating muscular national exceptionalism.
As the campaign nears its climax, the palpable feeling of nervous anticipation among Americans — Democrats in particular — is accompanied by some fatigue. Speaking to people during the past week, I found one recurring response to my questions about the election. The protracted two-year-long contest has left many just waiting for it to be all over, come Tuesday.
Whether it will be all over by the end of Tuesday night is, however, uncertain. Even if Obama wins the electoral college vote, lawyers on both the Republican and Democratic sides are preparing to dispute ballots across key states like Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania. Many believe that only an emphatic Democratic landslide can avert Republicans from casting doubt over the validity of an Obama victory.
An Obama presidency would be cathartic for America, for obvious reasons. Still, there would remain for Obama the task of trying to unite a deeply divided America. The culture war continues to be waged, with Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber the standard-bearers for a Republican base searching for a renewed cause.
A McCain presidency would face an even greater task of national reconciliation. Perhaps it reflects melodramatic liberal sensibilities, but even informed Democratic supporters have been openly wondering whether there may be civil unrest should McCain prevail by some stroke of last-minute electoral magic. Short of that, consider all the new voters the Obama campaign has attracted, and all the belief in American promise it has inspired, especially among young Americans and African-Americans. A McCain victory may leave an entire generation of Americans, if not also a large section of the African-American population, terminally disillusioned with their political system.
For the international observer, there may be some comfort in the fact that most Americans recognise this is a pivotal presidential contest. Already record numbers of people have chosen to cast their vote early — to avoid possibly missing out as a result of hours-long queues on Tuesday. A poll conducted last week by the New York Times found that 82 per cent of McCain supporters believed the election was "extremely" or "very" important, with 86 per cent of Obama supporters believing the same.
At this late stage, however, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are feeling any comfort — albeit for different reasons.
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